Sean Strickland is one of the most popular fighters in the UFC. He recently lost a close fight against Dricus Du Plessis. According to Sean Strickland’s head coach, there was a very specific reason why the fighter came up short. And no, it had nothing to do with any perceived flaws in Strickland’s skillset.
In a recent interview, Sean Strickland‘s long-time coach, Eric Nicksick shed light on his fighter’s mindset going into that all-important UFC middleweight title bout. Nicksick believed that Strickland fought Du Plessis with a different mindset than when he fought Israel Adesanya.
With DDP he fought like he didn’t want to lose, with Izzy he fought like he had nothing to lose…A few weeks ago, he was sparring and was winning rounds 1, 2, and 3 but they were close rounds like in his fight with DDP, so I asked him to fight like he did against Izzy, and in round 5 he beat the crap out of his opponent.
Eric Nicksick via Submission Radio
For those who don’t speak coach, that’s MMA code for admitting Strickland played it safe against Dricus Du Plessis. But against Adesanya, he was unstoppable. He took risks as he had nothing to lose and it paid off big time and he won the coveted middleweight championship belt against all odds.
Strickland’s coach on how differently Sean fought Izzy and Du Plessis:
“With DDP he fought like he didn’t want to lose, with Izzy he fought like he had nothing to lose.
A few weeks ago, he was sparring and was winning rounds 1, 2, and 3 but they were close rounds like in his… pic.twitter.com/PA03w77Z4W
— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) May 27, 2024
Strickland is now set to fight against Paulo Costa in the co-main event of UFC 302 this weekend. This is a much-anticipated fight between two of the most popular middleweights. Costa is coming off a loss against the former champion Robert Whittaker. The UFC 302 event is headlined by Islam Makhachev vs. Dustin Poirier.
Eric Nicksick details getting revenge on Dricus Du Plessis
Sean Strickland lost his UFC title to Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297. Strickland’s head coach Eric Nicksick found an unconventional way to exact some sweet revenge for his defeated pupil. This involved channeling his inner Rambo on the paintball battlefield.
Eric Nicksick got revenge on Dricus Du Plessis (Bleacher Report)Nicksick has immense respect for Du Plessis’ fighting skills. However, this didn’t stop him from hilariously gunning down the new middleweight champion. This was during a casual day of paint-slinging fun at Dan Bilzerian‘s mansion.
I actually talk to him [Dricus] quite a bit now, we were playing paintball over at [Dan] Blizerian’s one day… Headshot got him. See here’s the thing with Dricus, Dricus is like a Shrek build – he’s got these big hands and he’s like hiding behind this barrier, but his hands like sticking out… I’m like ‘Bro that’s easy, that’s [obviously] Dricus’ – boom, shot him in the hand…So that was payback [for Sean]
Eric Nicksick via The Schmo
Nicksick was simply indulging in some good-natured ribbing of the new 185-pound kingpin. He made sure to heap praise on Du Plessis’ meteoric ascension and cerebral fighting approach as well. This is high praise indeed from one of MMA’s most respected minds.Â
